SSI Equipment Techniques Course
Your regulator free-flows on the boat ten minutes before the dive, and you're not sure if it's something you can fix or something that ends your day.
Many certified divers have never actually been shown how their own gear works. SSI Equipment Techniques goes hands-on with your Total Diving System, so a gear problem becomes something you can diagnose, not just something that happens to you.
Availability: Contact us for booking information
Most Certified Divers Trust Their Gear Completely. Few Have Ever Been Shown How It Actually Works.
Your Total Diving System is the one piece of every dive you depend on without question, and most divers were never walked through what half its components actually do. That gap stays invisible right up until something goes wrong at the worst possible moment.
SSI Equipment Techniques covers the entire system hands-on: masks, fins, exposure protection, delivery systems, computers, and accessories, working through your own gear with a Tom’s instructor. Classroom and workshop format. $185 (please confirm current pricing with Tom’s before publishing). Prerequisites: Open Water certification, minimum age 10.
Trusting Your Gear and Understanding It Are Two Different Things.
If you have been diving for a while with equipment you could not fully explain the function of, that puts you in the majority, not a minority. Open Water teaches you to use your gear safely, not to understand every component deeply. That is exactly the gap this course closes.
This is exactly what continuing education is for. Not to prove you are advanced. To turn equipment you trust by habit into equipment you actually understand.
Equipment Techniques Is for the Diver Who Wants to Really Know Their Gear
This is usually the right next step if any of these sound familiar.
You just bought or are about to buy your own equipment
Understand exactly what you are buying and why, instead of relying entirely on a salesperson's recommendation.
You want to properly care for and extend the life of your gear
Routine care and maintenance significantly extends equipment life and keeps performance reliable.
You want to recognize problems before they become dive-day surprises
Identify common equipment issues early, and know when something needs professional servicing.
You want to feel genuinely independent with your own gear
Hands-on practice assembling, adjusting, and preparing your own system builds real confidence and independence.
Choose Your Optimize-Lane Course
You want to actually understand your gear
Best for divers who want real knowledge of how their equipment works, hands-on with their own system.
You want longer no-decompression time
Best for extending bottom time within safer limits on repetitive or extended dives.
You want to understand decompression theory and your computer specifically
Best for divers focused on the technology and theory behind dive computers.
Before and After
Most divers can describe exactly what changes after this course. Here is what that looks like in practice.
| Before | After |
| Unsure how your BC or regulator actually works | Real understanding of every major component |
| Guessing at what gear to buy | Informed purchase decisions based on fit and features |
| Surprised by equipment problems on dive day | Able to spot common issues before they become surprises |
| Relying entirely on the shop for maintenance | Confident performing routine care and maintenance yourself |
What You’ll Train
Online academics followed by a hands-on workshop with your own gear.
Cover your Total Diving System from the basics (mask, fins, exposure protection) through the full scuba delivery system, computers, and specialty accessories.
Work through your actual gear (or rental gear if you do not yet own your own) with a Tom’s instructor, covering assembly, adjustment, care, and maintenance.
Your SSI Equipment Techniques certification is a lifetime credential, and the real-world knowledge stays with you on every future gear decision and every future dive.
Course at a Glance
| Price | $185, please confirm current pricing with Tom’s before publishing |
| Format | Online academics via MySSI app plus hands-on workshop session |
| Location | 5909 Burnet Rd, Austin TX 78757 |
| Bring your gear | Personal equipment encouraged but not required; rental gear available for training |
| Prerequisites | Open Water certification (any agency) · minimum age 10 |
| Certification awarded | SSI Equipment Techniques · lifetime certification, recognized worldwide |
Ready to really know your gear?
SSI Equipment Techniques · Austin, TX
Online academics plus a hands-on workshop with your own gear. Call (512) 451-3425.
Signup now!!Equipment Techniques Sits in the Optimize Pathway
Optimize is about tools and efficiency. Equipment Techniques is the foundational knowledge course for understanding every tool you use on every dive.
Control / Comfort
Buoyancy, navigation, and other confidence-building skills.
Optimize
Nitrox, computers, equipment, and other tools that make diving more efficient.
Access
Wreck diving, deep diving, and other ways to reach new environments and depth, all of which depend on solid equipment knowledge.
We Build Divers We Would Trust With Our Own Families.
The best divers don’t chase certifications. They build capabilities. Equipment Techniques is a direct example of capability over certification: real understanding of your gear protects your investment and your safety on every dive you take afterward.
Tom’s services and repairs gear in-house, so the instructors teaching this course work alongside the same technicians who maintain equipment every day. Tom’s has been Austin’s only SSI Dive Center since 1982. We were teaching scuba in Austin before any of the other Austin dive shops opened. Over 18,000 certified divers and over 400 five-star Google reviews.
Taught by a Shop That Services Gear Daily
Tom’s sells, services, and repairs equipment in-house. This course is taught alongside that real, daily expertise.
Open Longer Than Any Other Austin Dive Shop Still in Business
Four decades of helping Austin divers understand and maintain their own equipment.
Your Actual Gear, Not Generic Classroom Equipment
Bring your own equipment and the workshop session is built directly around it.
One of Austin’s Largest Instructor Teams
Flexible scheduling for the classroom and workshop session.
We follow DAN dive safety protocols.
Tom’s follows Divers Alert Network (DAN) safety standards and recommends DAN dive accident insurance for every certified diver. Safety is not a checkbox on our website. It is the foundation of how Tom’s has operated since 1982.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Rental gear is provided for training if you do not yet own equipment. If you do own gear, bring it, and the workshop session focuses directly on it.
Yes. A core part of the course is making informed decisions when selecting new gear based on fit, features, and the environments you dive in.
No. The course teaches routine care and maintenance, and how to identify when professional servicing is needed, not how to perform technical repairs yourself.
Nitrox and Computer Diving focus on gas planning and decompression theory. Equipment Techniques focuses on the physical equipment itself: how it works, how to care for it, and how to choose it.
Yes. All students complete an SSI Medical Statement before any in-water or hands-on activity.